Bond On A Rented House

[paddyk]

My daughter is in the process of moving out from the house she and her partner have rented for 4 years. They are leaving the property in good condition but they changed the gas and electric meters to pre-payment ones but were unaware they should have asked the landlord first. (yes - I know). To cut a long story short it will cost the landlord £120 to have them removed when they have moved out. The energy company have refused to remove them before they vacate the property. What I would like to know is can the landlord keep all of their £500 bond or can only take out the £120 cost of changing the meters and refund the rest. I'm unsure of the legalities of it so I hope someone on here can help. I know they could go to the CAB
but I thought I'd ask on here anyway.

[ToraToraTora]

Is this UK?

[Peter Pedant]

depends what the contract says ( either country )

so she should read it with attention to change of supplier or change of tariff
for some non payers the utlity may not give a choice - they just go in and change it

If she is still with British Gas or womever then she can argue she hadnt changed suppliers

UK - it is nnot really a bond but a deposit and no they should only keep back £120

if the landlord hasnt registered for a deposit then she could give him a kicking over that as well

Others can tell you the ins and outs of the deposit scheme
there will deffo be an internal appeals procedure
and if he hasnt registered then he loses

( deposit scheme was set up because 90% of small claims on rents were arguments over the return of the dpeosit )

[paddyk]

PP. Yes we are in the UK (England). No she hasn't changed supplier - I think the energy supplier offered to install pre-payment because they had a bit of difficulty with the monthly bills as she was at University at that time. I know she should have got his permission and I would have thought the energy supplier would have asked if they owned the house or were tenants.
She is worried because she thinks the landlord won't hand back the deposit or will delay over it

[Peter Pedant]

deposit should be with the deposit scheme and NOT the landlord
so she needs to clarify where it is

All the instances I have had they just changed it to prepaid
( as an alternative to cutting off )

I would resist the charge on the grounds she didnt change it
they did

and you need to read the lease

You may have to take charge on this as if someone has difficulty paying a leccy bill then they are unlikely to front up and argue like Kavanagh QC or that mervyn peake lady

[ToraToraTora]

ok then it's a deposit in the deposit scheme. They can only take genuine exes

[Retrochic]

The Landlord will make a single claim through the DPS where he will have to give evidence of out of pocket expenses due to what the Tenant did. The Tenant will then have right to reply if they disagree, and will have to provide evidence. A ruling will be made by the DPS and they can refund any out of pocket expenses to the landlord and the Tenant can claim the remainder of the money.

[Peter Pedant]

Oh and on application the Landlord MUST say which deposit scheme he is using

[EDDIE51]

Are you sure the £120 is the cost of the new meters and not what is owing for gas /electricity. ?
The power supplier will have been taking back what was owed from the cash that was being put on the meters. They use a % of every payment to reduce the money owed and the rest to top up with fuel. I think they can not take more than 25% to repay the money owed but 10% is more common.
So the £120 could easily be what is still owing on previous bills.

[Retrochic]

Correct EDDIE we had a prepayment meter fitted on one of our houses which WE paid up front but had the Tenants requested it they would have had a tariff that contained a percentage of the cost of fitting the meter.